Superman from the comics: Starting with the Black Robe

Chapter 43 Kara Zo El

When he turned the scientist opposite him to ashes, Joey once again felt that long-lost feeling of adrenaline rush, just like he had in the G-Men manor.

The soldiers around him pulled the triggers and fired, their guns shooting out beams of green particles. In these beams, Joey saw a substance that was completely unfamiliar yet strangely familiar to his body—Kryptonite, the last remnant of Krypton.

The facilities in the core area of ​​this research base are practically tailor-made for Kryptonians.

But no matter how good the weapons are, they are still used by humans, and even the most dangerous weapons are useless if they can hit people.

Joey dodged the first attack with a quick movement, and before the other side could react, he used his thermal vision to turn all the organisms in the laboratory to ashes.

He desperately wanted to tear each other's bodies apart with his own hands, but the person in his arms was not in good condition, forcing Joey to suppress this desire.

He carefully used his thermal vision to clear a path, flying upwards until he returned to the ground.

The "Meteorite Fall Day" monument, built in Metropolis more than a decade ago, collapsed with a loud crash and sank into the ground. In this huge void, Joey, holding the Kryptonian woman, rushed out.

He merely glanced at the panicked crowd around him before flying straight into the sky. The Kryptonian biofield enveloped the two of them as Joey broke through the atmosphere and headed towards the sun.

As they drew closer to the sun, the Kryptonian woman in their arms gradually recovered, her once withered blonde hair finally regaining its vibrant color. Although her body remained thin and emaciated, she had at least begun to regain consciousness.

Although he didn't know if Kryptonians had an overcharge protection mechanism, Joey felt it was better to be cautious, so he took the other person back to Earth and landed in the Arctic.

She opened her mouth with a string of strange language that Joey had never heard before: "I never thought it would be you who saved me, Karl El."

To Joey's surprise, she could actually understand the language and even respond in the same language.

"You've mistaken me for someone else. My name is Joey Joseph Kent, and the Karl El you're talking about is definitely not me."

Kal-El is Superman's Kryptonian name. There are many Supermen out there, and even Joy herself comes from another universe. How could she possibly be the Superman she's talking about?

Looking at the Kryptonian girl who was regaining her vitality, he boldly guessed, "I bet you have a name that I recognize."

"Kara Zo El, I'm your cousin. Oh, you don't know..."

Kara looked at Joey, who was holding her in her arms, with disbelief on her face: "You've grown so big."

Kara Zo El, Superman Kal'el's cousin, is a supergirl and also a Kryptonian orphan who escaped after Krypton's destruction.

The story she told Joey was exactly the same as what Joey knew before: Kara's father, Zo El, set the same coordinates and sent Kara to protect his infant cousin, Kara El.

But Kara had barely landed and was captured and controlled before she could adapt to Earth's environment. She was trapped in a dark and sunless laboratory for more than a decade, never expecting that the person who would rescue her would be the grown-up Karl El.

Joey never imagined that in this universe, it would be her, not Superman, who would land on Earth.

But it doesn't matter; this universe will be destroyed sooner or later anyway.

Kara broke free from Joey's embrace, now mostly recovered under the sunlight—Kryptonians are indeed a great race:

"How have you been all these years? The last time I saw you, you were just a newborn baby..."

Carla's words left Joey somewhat bewildered. It was like a complete stranger, a female relative, coming over and saying she had held him as a child, while he had absolutely no recollection of her.

"There's a huge misunderstanding here. I'm definitely not the Karl El you're looking for! Just call me Joey."

After more than a decade of imprisonment, Kara's attitude towards the "locals" was far from pleasant. With a light stomp of her foot, cracks spread across the thick ice like a spiderweb, stretching for several meters.

"Is that your Earth name? You even gave yourself a local Earth name?!"

Joey could understand the other person's emotions; if he were treated like that, he would only be more furious than the other person.

"A name is just a label; you are free to call me whatever you want."

Kara looked Joey up and down, who was dressed in casual clothes, and sighed softly. "Okay, Joey. Maybe this is better for you."

"There should be a Kryptonian spaceship that came with you."

Joey reminded Kara that the spaceship was still in the Star Labs and that he needed it: "I can help you get your things back."

"Well!"

Kara suddenly covered her ears and knelt down in pain.

Joey knew what was going on. Perhaps the close exposure to sunlight had over-excited Kara, and now it was time to activate her super senses. She could now hear almost the entire Earth.

"Focus your attention, shut yourself off, and don't let their pain affect you. You are completely different from them."

"My God! You've been able to hear me all this time?"

Kara was already in tears and on the verge of collapse, because like Joey, she had heard what was happening all over the world—the pleas and cries of billions of people facing life and death, just like the final moments of Krypton.

Joey could certainly hear it; he could hear it even more clearly than Kara.

At this moment, a silverback gorilla named Groud in Africa has unified all apes and is massacring the local humans; Wonder Woman Diana is leading the survivors of the sunken Paradise Island on an armed landing in the British Isles; and Aquaman is building a super weapon capable of completely destroying the land's inhabitants.

"You possess godlike power, why didn't you do something about it before?!"

Faced with Kara Zo El's questioning, Joey simply uttered this sentence before choosing to leave:

"Because none of this matters."

He needs to find Kara's spaceship, obtain its technology, and figure out how to resolve his mistaken time travel.

"Don't go, Karl El!"

Carla bent over and barely managed to grab Joey's ankle. At that moment, a million voices echoed in her mind, making her almost lose her balance:

"Have you ever seen the El family's crest? They represent..."

"I know they represent 'hope,' but this planet has no hope left!"

Joey impatiently turned around and interrupted Kara's lecture:

"The people on this planet locked you up in a dark dungeon for almost twenty years to study you, yet you still care about their lives. I admire your morality."

But someone will fix all of this, and when that time comes, all those people you mentioned will have never died, or never existed, just as I said before—none of that matters.”

"No, Joey, all of this is important."

Kara finally managed to adjust to the noise, and although she was still very thin, she tried her best to straighten up and look at Joey:

"If you can hear them, then you should know that they are different from those people. I despise your cold-bloodedness."

I respect your choice that you are unwilling to do these things, but I will do them myself.